This guidance contains all the assignment settings for setting up of individual assignment submission. Please refer staff to the Assignment Quickstart Guides for quick assignment setup.
Once one or more students have submitted an assignment; do not change any of the assignment settings, as to do so can cause student submissions to be hidden and unavailable for marking.
Turn editing on. This will reveal an option to add an activity or resource at the bottom of each topic within the module. Click Add an activity or resource (in the section/topic where you want the assignment to be located), then select Assignment from the Activity list and then click Add.
General settings
SETTING | DESCRIPTION | SCREENSHOT |
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Assignment name | Write a meaningful Assignment name. | Add New Assignment |
Description | Provide clear instructions to your students about the assignment. | |
Display description on the module page | If ticked, the above Description will be displayed under the assignment link on the module page. If left un-ticked, the description will be displayed only when the assignment page is selected. | |
Additional files | Additional files for use in the assignment, such as for example submissions or answer templates, may be added. Download links for the files will then be displayed on the assignment page under the description. Note: Even where the Display description on the module page is ticked, the file only displays under the description when the assignment page is selected. The file is not displayed under the assignment link on the module page. |
Availability settings
We recommend that assignment deadlines are set between 9-5 Monday-Friday to ensure educational technology, technology, and course office support is available for students who experience problems submitting assignments.
All assignment submission areas with deadlines should be clearly visible to students from the start date of the module. Assessment criteria should also be available to students from Moodle.
If you do not need to provide your students with extra time to submit, we recommend you set the Cut-off-date to the Due date. If no Cut-off date is set, students who click on their assignment to review their submission are marked as late even if they make no changes to their assignment submission.
SETTING | DESCRIPTION | SCREENSHOT |
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Allow submissions from | Sets the date from when students will be able to submit to their assignment. This is enabled by default. | Assignment Availability |
Due date | Sets the Due date for the assignment. This is enabled by default. We recommend that assignment deadlines are set between 9-5 Monday-Friday to ensure educational technology, technical and course office support is available for students who experience problems submitting assignments. | |
Cut-off date | Enabling the Cut-off date allows students to submit after the Due date (normally with a marks penalty per day after the due date). Any submissions added after the Due date will be marked as late. Submissions will not be allowed after the cut-off date. Check the Enable box to set the date. This is not enabled by default but must be selected Please note that the cut-off date does not display to students so you will need to write the cut off date into the Description if you want students to be aware of it. If you do not need to provide your students with extra time to submit, we recommend you set the Cut-off-date to the Due date. If no Cut-off date is set, students who click on their assignment to review their submission are marked as late even if they make no changes to their assignment submission. | |
Remind me to grade by | The date you must complete marking. This will appear as an upcoming event on your My Moodle page. | |
Always show description | This is set to Yes by default. If set to No, the assignment Description will only become visible to students at the Allow submissions from date. |
Submission types settings
SETTING | DESCRIPTION | SCREENSHOT |
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Submission types | Select the type of assignment: File submissions (students upload a Word or PDF file) or Online text (students type rich text directly into an editor field for their submission). With Online text submissions, markers can comment on, and edit students’ text directly. | Submission Types |
Word limit | If Online text submissions are enabled, then you can set the maximum number of words that each student will be allowed to submit. Tick the Enable box to set a word limit. | |
Maximum number of uploaded files | Set the Maximum number of uploaded files as required by the assignment. Please note, this is also the maximum number of feedback files that you can attach to each individual student when providing feedback. For example, if you want a student to submit one file but want to upload two feedback files then select three files. Remember to advise the student on how many files they should submit in the assignment instructions. | |
Maximum submission size | This setting defaults to the maximum upload limit for Moodle of 200MB. | |
Accepted file types | Accepted file types can be restricted by entering a semicolon-separated list of types, for example ‘video/mp4; audio/mp3; image/png; image/jpeg’. You may also limit to extensions by including the dot, for example ‘.png; .jpg’ If the field is left empty, then all file types are allowed. |
Feedback types settings
SETTING | DESCRIPTION | SCREENSHOT |
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Feedback types | Under the Feedback types, you can select how you want to manage your feedback. All three options are checked by default and we recommend not changing this option
| Feedback types |
Comment inline | If enabled, this setting allows the submission text to be copied into the feedback comment field during grading, making it easier to comment inline (using a different color, perhaps) or to edit the original text. |
Submission settings
SETTING | DESCRIPTION | SCREENSHOT |
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Require students click submit button | We strongly recommend that you do not change this setting from the default of No as this can cause problems for students submitting. If set to Yes, students will have to click a Submit button to declare their submission as final. If they forget to click the Submit button before the deadline then their submission will show as late. A second issue is that if students click the Submit button before the deadline, but then update their work and wish to upload this newly edited file they will be unable to do so as they have already declared their submission to be the final one. They would then need to contact their lecturer and ask them to manually send their submission back to them. | Submission settings |
Require that students accept the submission statement | This is set to Yes by default. We ask that you do not change this so that students confirm that they understand what is required of them when submitting assignments to City. | |
Attempts reopened | If you require students to resubmit an assignment following a fail at the first attempt you will find the improvements in assignment resubmission useful. This setting allows you to specify how assignment attempts are reopened. The options available are:
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Maximum attempts | This setting allows you to specify how many attempts students should have at resubmitting an assignment once it has been reopened. To enable a resubmission, this needs to be set to at least 2. |
Group assignment submission settings
These settings enable you to set up a group assignment. For an individual assignment leave all the settings as default. If you are setting up a group assignment then please see the Group Assignment Quickstart Guide.
Notifications settings
SETTING | DESCRIPTION | SCREENSHOT |
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Notify graders about submissions | If set to Yes all lecturer roles will receive an email every time a student submits to the submission area. | Notifications settings |
Notify graders about late submissions | If set to Yes all lecturer roles will receive an email every time a student adds a late submission to the submission area (after the due date). | |
The Default setting for “Notify Students” | This field controls when to notify students of their feedback and sets the default value for the “Notify students” checkbox on the grading form. The default value is Yes. |
Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings
You can generate Originality Reports for PDF and Word assignments submitted using Moodle’s assignment activity.
We recommend using Moodle assignment feedback functionality and not GradeMark when marking your Moodle assignment with Turnitin plugin enabled. Do not use Feedback Studio to provide grades and feedback for student assignments as there are issues with synching grades between Moodle assignment screen and Feedback. Students have also reported difficulty in opening Feedback Studio feedback in Moodle assignments. Use Moodle’s feedback functionality for adding feedback.
Before you enable Turnitin in your Moodle assignment have a look at the Accepted file types to ensure your assignment requirements are met.
Accepted file types
Turnitin currently accepts the following file types for upload into an assignment:
Microsoft Word™ (DOC and DOCX)
Corel WordPerfect®
HTML
Adobe PostScript®
Plain text (TXT)
Rich Text Format (RTF)
Portable Document Format (PDF)
Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX, and PPS) (Unable to generate an Originality Report )
Hangul (HWP)
For assignments that accept any file types the following image file types can be displayed and rendered in GradeMark, but will not generate an Originality Report:
JPEG
GIF
PNG
TIFF
BMP
PICT
Non-supported file types
Microsoft® Works (.wps) file types.
Apple Pages file types.
Spreadsheets created outside of Microsoft Excel (i.e. .ods).
GDOC files (.gdoc) which are just links to online Google Document files, but don’t actually contain text or the document’s content. Google Drive must be used to upload Google Docs.
Microsoft Word 2007 macros-enabled (.docm) files.
All other file types that are not one of the file formats listed above will be accepted by Turnitin when the setting for Allow submission of any file type is set to Yes, but the file may not be displayed in GradeMark. When files cannot be displayed in GradeMark, Lecturers and Tutors are still able to download the original files.
The file size may not exceed 40MB.
Text only files may not exceed 2 MB.
Files must contain at least 21 words of text.
PDF documents must contain text to generate an originality report. PDF files containing only images of text will be rejected during the upload attempt if the setting Allow submission of any file type is set to No and if set to Yes, will not generate an originality report.
SETTING | DESCRIPTION | SCREENSHOT |
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Enable Turnitin | Select Yes if you want to generate an Originality Report. | Turnitin plagiarism plugin settings |
Display Originality Reports to Students | The Default is No. This setting allows you to display Turnitin originality reports to student users. If set to Yes the originality report generated by Turnitin is available for the student to view. Showing students their originality reports and teaching them how to interpret them can be part of a learning activity about plagiarism and academic writing. | |
When should the file be submitted to Turnitin? | This setting cannot be changed from the default of the Submit file when first uploaded. | |
Allow submission of any file type? | This allows your students to submit any file type, but please note that an Originality Report will not be generated for all file types. | |
Store Student Papers | The default setting is Standard Repository. If No Repository is chosen, the student papers will be checked against the Turnitin Databases but will not be submitted to the Database. If you are using Turnitin for formative assessment or have confidential project assignments you might not want the papers to be stored in the repository so that a formative draft does not show up as a copy for the summative submission so you can select No Repository. | |
Check against stored student papers | The default setting is Yes. This checks student submissions against papers previously submitted to Turnitin from students at City and other Universities using Turnitin. | |
Check against internet | The default setting is Yes. This checks student submissions against internet content stored in the Turnitin database. | |
Check against journals, periodicals, and publications | The default setting is Yes. This checks student submissions against journals, periodicals, and publications stored in the Turnitin database. | |
Report Generation Speed | The default setting is to Generate reports immediately (resubmissions are allowed until due date). Originality Reports for the initial submission by each student to this assignment will be generated immediately. Students may resubmit as often as they wish until the assignment due date. Originality Reports for the second or subsequent submission will require a 24-hour delay before the Originality Report begins processing. Only the latest submission is available to the Lecturer or student. Previous versions are removed. Student submissions will compare against one another within the assignment on the due date and time which may result in a change in the Originality Report, Similarity Index and results at the due date and time. Other options available are:
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Exclude Bibliography | The default setting is No. You can choose whether to include or exclude the Bibliography from the Similarity Index and Originality Report. This means that the similarity index will be reduced in all instances where the Bibliography is excluded.If set to Yes, excludes content underneath the words, references, bibliography. | |
Exclude Quoted Material | The default setting is No. You can choose whether to include or exclude any text within quotation marks from the Similarity Index and Originality Report. This means that the similarity index will be reduced in all instances where the quoted material is excluded. If set to Yes, excludes content enclosed between double quotation marks or content that is indented. | |
Exclude Small Matches | The default setting is No. You can choose whether to exclude small matches from the Similarity Index and Originality Report. The other options available are Words or Percent. Either the number of words or percentage of text to be excluded can be added to the box underneath this field. | |
Attach a rubric to this assignment | We do not recommend the use of Feedback Studio to mark Moodle assignments, so do not use this setting. |
Grade settings
SETTING | DESCRIPTION | SCREENSHOT |
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Grade | Select the Grade type. The options are None, Scale or Point. If Scale is chosen, you can then choose a scale from the Scale drop-down options. If the scale you want to use is already available in the drop-down list select the scale from the list. If you want to set up a custom scale, follow our guide to Add a new scale. Example scales are:
If Point is chosen, you can enter the maximum grade available for this activity in the Maximum points field. | Grade settings |
Grading method |
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Grade category | This determines where your assignment will sit within the grades area. You will need to set up the categories in the Grader report first. Please see the link to the grades guidance at the bottom of the page for more information on categories. | |
Grade to pass | This setting determines the minimum grade required to pass. The value is used in activity and course completion, and in the gradebook, where pass grades are highlighted in green and fail grades in red. | |
Blind (Anonymous) marking | Blind marking hides the identity of students to markers. Blind marking settings will be locked once a submission or grade has been made in relation to this assignment. Please note that this setting should not be used in conjunction with the notify graders settings as this will reveal the students’ identity via the emails sent. If you have enabled blind marking, you will need to click reveal student identities in order to release grades and feedback to students. Do not reveal student identities until the grading process is complete as this option cannot be re-enabled. | |
Use marking workflow | We recommend using Groups under Common module settings to facilitate multiple markers. This requires less manual intervention than the settings Use Marking workflow and Use marking allocation. If this setting is set to Yes, marks will go through a series of workflow stages before being released to students. This allows for multiple rounds of marking and allows marks to be released to all students at the same time. | |
Use marking allocation | If enabled together with marking workflow, markers can be allocated to particular students. |
When you are ready to save the assignment settings click on the Save and Display button to view the assignment submission area.